Marketing Moments

Why learning 15 ways to Close the Sale is a waste of Your time

Why learning 15 ways to Close the Sale is a waste of Your time

There are dozens of ways to close the sale, and lots of sales trainers know them all. There is the assumptive close, the alternative choice close, the reverse close, the time sensitive close and many more.

Closing of course is the end point of every sales pipeline, and you must have an elegant way of asking for the sale. So many sales are lost because the sales person doesn’t ask for it, but relying on the close to get the sale for you, making the close do all the work in converting a prospect is a big mistake. If the customer is not ready to buy, no close will work for them.

Customers may not be ready to buy for many reasons. They may not be clear about the benefits, they may not be confident that the business can deliver what they want, they may not be convinced that the solution will work for them or not believe they will get value for money. If these concerns have not been addressed, your fancy close isn’t going to work.

The sale is won or lost at the start of your sales pipeline. This is where the benefits are explained, confidence is gained that the solution will work and you are the one to deliver it and it’s value for money. The sales process is a multistep journey where these concerns are addressed. The more complex the sale and the higher value, the more sophisticated the sales pipeline required.

There is a temptation to try to get the prospect to the quote or proposal stage before they’re ready, before all their questions have been properly addressed. In fact, a proposal shouldn’t be made unless there is a high degree of confidence that it will be accepted. Part of the sales process should be to road test solutions along with ballpark pricing to give the prospect an opportunity to raise their concerns. A great sales pipeline will have fully documented each step of the sales process and will track where the prospect is in the process, and whether they have been fully prepared to receive a proposal.

In a well executed sales process, a proposal will only be presented to a prospect that is ready to buy. Such a prospect will only then need a small nudge to close the sale. A close such as “When would you like it delivered?” or “When would you like to start?” depending if you have a product or service, will be all that’s necessary to close the sale.

This doesn’t mean that you will close every sale. In fact if your close rate is 100%, that would mean you’re too cheap! But that’s a topic for another day.